MIDDLESBROUGH Football Club has been accused of being a bad neighbour by councillors at Hurworth.

The club's main training ground is at Rockcliffe Park but parish councillors claimed it could do more to be involved with the village.

Coun Roderick Burtt made the accusation at Tuesday's parish council meeting and fellow members agreed. Later, he said a better description would be that the club was "uninterested" in the village.

Originally, he said the village had a great community spirit but believed the club should be more involved. He said: "It is not enough just to pay council tax.

"The club could be an asset to the community and there are so many things we could do together that would be useful to the village. But all the time the club is increasing the gap between itself and the community. It must be willing to give just a little bit more."

Coun Burtt called for a meeting between club representatives and councillors to discuss the situation and chairman, Clive Bullock, agreed to discuss arrangements at next month's meeting.

Yesterday Coun Burtt said: "I think a good starting point would be for the club to be more involved with the children in the community. They could visit schools or help with activities. It would also be a big step if they were willing to support or even sponsor events in the community."

Dave Allen, communications manager for the Boro, said: "We pride ourselves on actively supporting the local community that has given us such a warm welcome since we moved to Hurworth seven years ago.

"At the same time we are committed to keeping to an absolute minimum any impact we might have on the village itself. We have supported the village community centre, schools and football teams in a variety of ways and are, therefore, rather surprised to learn of the Mr Burtt's views.

"However, we have an open mind and would be happy to meet Mr Burtt or the parish councillors."

* Mast objection: page 3.